to listen and negotiate and make concessions. it's people like paul ryan who are the more more reasonable voice in the room. host: it is time for the house of representatives to come in. have a good day. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] aker. the clerk: the speaker's room, washington, d.c., january 12, 2016. i hereby appoint the honorable doug lamalfa to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, paul d. ryan, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the order of the house of january 5, 2016, the chair will now recognize members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning hour debate. the chair will alternate recognition between the parties with each party limited to one hour and each member other than the majority and minority leaders and the minority whip but in to five minutes,

no event shall debate continue beyond 11:50 a.m. the chair recognizes the gentleman from -- the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from alabama, for five minutes. ms. sewell: thank you, mr. speaker. today i rise on restoration tuesday to honor my guests to tonight's state of the union address. ms. cheyenne criesberg of montgomery, alabama, will be my special guest to president obama's final state of the union address. cheyenne was 8 years old and was one of the youngest foot soldiers when she marched from selma to montgomery. on this restoration tuesday, it is my sincere hope that her presence will remind us of the

modern day fight for ensuring that every american citizen has access to the ballot box. at an early age, cheyenne recognized that america had failed to live up to its own promise by depriving african-americans of their sacred right to vote. cheyenne's bravery reminded those around her that they're fighting for the next generation, her generation as they were fighting for their own. her courage made it possible for me to represent our hometown of selma in congress. i'm thankful to call cheyenne my friend and mentor. she was my childhood babysitter so i literally grew up in her shadow. her presence at president obama's final state of the union should once again remind us of the gravity of our responsibility to protect the vote for all americans. since the civil rights era ended, there's now modern day barriers to voting. since the supreme court struck down section 4 of the voting rights act of 1965 in 2013, my

office has made restoring this critically important section one of our top priorities. for the past three years, my state of the union guests have represented a different aspect of the voting rights movement. in 2014, my guests to the state of the union was selma's mayor, george evans. as mayor of the birthplace of the voting rights act, he represented the die nationalic role selma and her leaders played for voting equality. in 2015, i invited the 104-year-old emealia robinson as my guest to the state of the union. as the matriarch of the voting ights era, emilia helped -- to -american from vote. i think it is befitting that since last year my special getz was the oldest living foot soldier that my guest this year living the youngest

foot soldier, cheyenne webb. all of these individuals have paved the way for me to accomplish all i have today and i am forever grateful. their legacy should inspire us, not to take for granted the very sacred vote and that is the right to vote. their sacrifices reminds us there's much more work to be done, and my hope is that this chamber will take on the challenge of doing that work. we should try to restore the is righting rights act of 1965. i think that our work begins even today, so i hope that cheyenne webb as my special guest to the state of the union will remind all of us that it's really important that we protect the sacred right to vote, and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from tennessee, mrs. blackburn, for five minutes. thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to shed more light on president obama's reckless refugee resettlement agenda and

the danger that it poses to americans. now, in my office, we're getting many calls about this. as you hear about the new plans that he has and also as our constituents watch the news of what is happening in germany, what is happening in other communities. let me cite just a couple of examples. last week, according to "the wall street journal" and numerous media outlets, two refugees from iraq were arrested from making false statements involving terrorism. these arrests took place in california -- one in california and one in texas. the california arrest, one refugee came to the u.s. in 2012 and subsequently traveled to syria in november, 2013. he bragged in social media posts about fighting alongside error groups such as al-islam. this refugee returned to the u.s. a few months later, and when interviewed by the f.b.i. in october of 2014, he denied

being a part of any extremist group and denied providing material support to terrorists. what we found in texas is this. the refugee was charged on three counts. attempting to provide material support to the islamic state, procuring citizenship or naturalization unlawfully and, number three, making false statements. this is precisely why president obama's plan to admit thousands of additional syrian refugees into the country at a time of heightened jihadist threats and the san bernardino massacre is beyond reckless and is dangerous to our community. there is no way to vet the refugees that are coming from syria and iraq and verify they are the person represented in the documents that they carry. are the documents false or is the person who they say they

are or someone else? it proves what many have been saying for months about islamic extremists. they can and will exploit the refugee program. these arrests showcase what is so painfully obvious to the american people, the president's agenda is endangering our national security and it is costing millions of dollars from our hardworking taxpayers. let me ask you a few questions. do you feel more or less safe than you did eight years ago? do you fear the attack of terrorism in your community? do you question your safety when you go to a public event? how does the president's foreign policy and our national security affect you where you work, where you live? how can the administration be so naive? how can the administration continue to put partisan politics over the safety of the american people? how can the administration

continually refuse to name our enemy? yes, we are at war with radical islamic extremism. we must confront the danger of radical extremism and check the president's irresponsible resettlement agenda. i want to mention h.r. 4218. it's legislation that i drafted and introduced with representatives barletta, desjarlais and smith, lamar smith. under the bill, no funding would be made available for refugee resettlement operations until four conditions are met. congress passes a joint esolution approving of the president's refugee resettlement plan. number two, c.b.o. provides a report to congress scoring the long-term costs of the program. number three, d.h.s. submits a report identifying all terrorists and criminal activity connected to refugees since 2001.

and number four, the president submits a report to congress on the prior year's cost of dmitting refugees and proposes offset spending cuts to pay for the resettlement program. we must halt the president's refugee resettlement operations. it is simply too dangerous, and we cannot afford the risks to our nation's security. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from southern california, ms. bass, for five minutes. ms. bass: speaker lamalfa, january is human trafficking month, and i urge today to continue to be a voice for the countless victims of human trafficking in the united states. if we as members of congress want to truly address the sex trafficking epidemic, we must face the facts. we must address and acknowledge

the children in the foster care system and those who become victims of sex trafficking. the foster care system is a gateway to sex trafficking. this is a nationwide issue that requires a federal response. in 2010, 59% of the children arrested on prostitution-related charges in l.a. county were in the foster care system. a 2007 report from the u.s. department of justice found that 85% of identified child sex trafficking victims in new york state also had contact with the child welfare system. further, according to the f.b.i., an estimated 70% of child sex trafficking victims in florida had histories with the child welfare system. children in the foster care system are our children, so when they fall victims to trafficking, it means that all of us have failed. to help all victims of trafficking, including foster youth, we must change our mind set on how we address this horrific crime.

a child who cannot consent to sex should never be called a prostitute. the men who prey on them are not johns. they are child molesters. a former foster youth became a sex trafficking victim. when she was 15 and still in foster care, t, as she was called, was arrested for prostitution. while serving time in juvenile hall she discovered that more than half of the girls serving with her were also charged with solicitation, and like her, were forced to sell themselves. she described her treatment in juvenile hall like how you would treat a dog in a kennel. she was put in a box and kept waiting. she was treated like a criminal and did not receive any counseling or support services. because she was punished and not helped, she was arrested again when she was 16 years old and she spent her 17th birthday in juvenile hall. i'm grateful that she found the strength and support to escape

from her pimp. she now uses her voice to advocate for sex trafficking victims and to urge policymakers at all levels of government to do our jobs, to prevent young girls from becoming sex trafficking victims. because of actions from women like t, local officials in los angeles have changed their approach to addressing this issue. they have realized that arresting the victims won't solve the problem. last year l.a. county sheriff jim mcdonald announced that his department will immediately stop arresting children on prostitution charges. this announcement was coupled by the l.a. county board of supervisors adopting a countywide effort to ensure that child victims of sex trafficking are truly treated as victims and receive support services they need instead of punishment. last year this congress came together as democrats and republicans to pass comprehensive human trafficking legislation, but our work does

not end when the bill was signed. we must also use our positions to urge local officials in our districts to follow the best practices used around the country. to truly make a difference, this human trafficking month, i urge all members to reach out to their local this was and local elected officials and urge them to learn from los angeles and begin treating sex trafficking victims as victims. although the legislation is a great step forward, we should also use the power of our voices and our positions to ensure that more girls get the help they need instead of being treated as criminals. i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from florida, ms. ros-lehtinen, for five minutes. ms. ros-lehtinen: thank you, mr. speaker. thank you, mr. speaker. as we get further away from december 17, 2014, the date that president obama announced his change in u.s. policy toward cuba, it has become apparent that there can be no

abusive or provocative act committed by the tyrannical castro regime that the obama administration is not willing to overlook or willing to excuse. even after the cuban regime was caught red-handed, shipping surface-to-air missiles, to m.i.g. aircrafts and tons of cuban-made weapons and munitions to north korea in violation of several u.n. security council resolutions, it could not stop president obama's desire to placate the castros. this and the most recent revelation that the united states government found out in june of 2014 that cuba managed to come into possession of a u.s. hell fire missile and continues to this day to turn over that sensitive military technology. they're not isolated events. both events underscore exactly how egregiously the administration has erred and the extraordinary length to

which the president will go in order to hide these transgressions from congress and from the american people. you see, mr. speaker, after the president made his december 17, 2014, announcement, it's been revealed that not only the administration keep congress uninformed of the negotiations but the negotiations had been taking place for over a year and a half. if we follow the timeline, that means that these secret negotiations were taking place after the administration was already made aware that the castros were in possession of a u.s. hell fire missile and after havana had sent the shipment of arms to pyongyang. . even after the administration offered congress session after concessions to the castros, opening of embassies, the president refused to make the returning of sensitive missile technology a precondition to the

negotiations or the implementation of this misguided policy. so let's stop and think about this for a second, mr. speaker. the president has given the castro regime almost everything it could have asked for, and what did we ask for in return? did we demand free and fair elections? of course not. did we demand the end of the persecution of dissidents and the release of political prisoners? you've got to be kidding, of course not. did we demand that the regime stop the long list of human rights abuses? no. in fact, just this past sunday over 200 people were arrested in cuba because they were calling for religious tolerance. but never mind that, let's look at the cool classic chevys that roll through the streets of havana. that's what we are supposed to be talking about. the president didn't even demand that the communist regime with known and close military ties to russia, china, and north korea turn over to the u.s. the

hellfire missile it had been in possession of since june of 2014. i don't need to remind my colleagues of how incredibly dangerous it is for the castros to be in possession of this sensitive military technology. or how incredibly damaging it could be to our own national security interests , when not if, the regime turns that technology over to one of our adversaries. last year, both the russian minister of defense and china's top military official, visited havana to discuss ways to strengthen their military cooperation efforts with cuba, and a senior castro regime official traveled to north korea for military talks. mr. speaker, not only has the president's cuban policy been a disaster for the people of cuba, it has been a disaster for our own safety and security. there should be, there must be a full and thorough investigation into this hellfire missile incident, and if this administration won't do what is

necessary to hold the cuban regime accountable, then we in congress must use every available tool in order to do so. we cannot allow the administration's endless train the tyrannicalto cuban regime to continue while it turns its back on those suffering under the regime's oppression. this is not what america stands for and we should not allow president obama's misguided foreign policy objectives to ever change that. thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from washington, mr. mcdermott, for five minutes. mr. mcdermott: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. mcdermott: mr. speaker, on the wall outside my office are the faces of 149 men and women from washington state who were killed in action over the past 14 years in afghanistan and

iraq. today it's with reverence that i will add the 150th face, sergeant matthew mcclinic. he was killed in helmund province in afghanistan on the fifth of january. he was a green beret, engineer, national guardsman, as well as a dedicated friend, son, husband, and father. he joined the army in 2006 and served in both iraq and afghanistan over the course of three tours. on one of his tours, his best friend was killed. so you can imagine what was in his mind when he's now leading a group in afghanistan and one of his men is out on the ground hit. he knew the danger, but he went out to try and save his teammate.

he epitomized everything we admire about our warriors, their skill, their mettle, their commitment to teammates, to their families, and to us as a nation. the loss of a promising, smart, steadfast young man whose devotion to family and country was freely given, should not and will not be accepted without sorrow and respect. i had the chance to meet matthew's wife and their 3-month-old son on friday when matthew came back to dover air force base. everything his family said about him and speaks of him i would like to have known. it is said that the true soldier fights not because he hates what's in front of him, but because he loves what's behind him. matthew leaves behind a proud and beautiful family.

his wife asked that she have a chance to go up to walter reed to see the man who her husband went out to save who is still alive. that's the kind of family this is. we, as a nation, should be forever grateful that someone of his caliber and his family continue to choose to fight. mr. speaker, we have entered the 15th year of this war. and it's easy to forget what's still going on in iraq and afghanistan and other places where our soldiers are. i became aware of this because somebody in my district was the father-in-law of matthew. he called me up and asked if i would be of help. i was glad to do it, but i realized i hadn't been aware what had happened to him. i asked the army press people, was this reported in the press?

they said, yes. it was on television for 45 seconds. the american people are being allowed not to see and not to hear about matthew mcclinic. they are not being told what's going on and we sent him there. we gave him the gun. we gave him the bullets. we gave him the armor, body armor. we gave him everything and sent him over there and asked him to do this for us. he did it. he was willing to lay down his life for us. we deserve more time with people like matthew and many of the soldiers who went before him. but for those who survive them, matthew's teammates, his family, and especially his son, when this war finally ends, they

deserve long and happy lives in peace. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from california, mr. denham, for five minutes. mr. speaker, i rise today to discuss the contributions the wasps have made to our country. the women air force service pilots. they represent an elite group of pilots. they flew combat missions during world war ii. they displayed courage, valor, and willingness to serve. and they made a valuable contributions to our nation's tofertse battle on the world stage. there were fewer than 1,100, 38 of them died during their service. but because the unit was created in 1942rks the wasp group was never granted full military status.

in 1977, congress retroactively granted active duty status to these brave pilots to ensure that all v.a. policies, laws, and services would apply to them. and yet the army recently denied the request of wasps seeking a place in arlington national cementtary. they say they are running out of space. this decision flies in the face of our nation's efforts to recognize, reward, and treat honorably the contributions of all of our veterans. these women deserve the same honor bestowed upon hundreds of thousands of their fellow service members. i urge my colleagues to join me in co-sponsoring and supporting the bill. i say this to the v.a., find the space. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the the gentlewoman from california, ms.

speier, for five minutes. ms. speier: thank you, mr. speaker. universities are supposed to be in the business of illumination. as we have seen in recent cases at cal tech and u.c. berkeley that's not always the case. at u.c. the world renowned astronomer, jeff marcy, sexually harassed students for years with no consequences. the light of knowledge can cast some dark shadows. brave women recently alerted my office to still more harassment in astronomy. now at the university of arizona. i ask for unanimous consent to enter into the record this report from the university of arizona regarding a dr. timothy slater. this report was sealed for over a decade while dr. slater went on with his career. his example shows why so few women continue careers in science and engineering.

some universities protect predatory professors with slaps on the wrist and secrecy, just like the catholic church sheltered child plesting priests for many -- molesting priests for many decades. the incidents described in this report are lure rid and disturbing. -- lure i had and disturbing. one graduate student was told regularly by dr. slater that she would teach better if she did not wear underwear. he asked another graduate student to give women pointers on oral sex technique. dr. slater himself admitted that he gave an employee a vegetable shaped vibrater and that he frequently commented to his employees and students about the appearance of women. my staff spoke with one female grad student who was required to attend a strip club in order to discuss her academic work with dr. slater. the woman has since left the

field of astronomy. the second female grad student told us that during a one-on-one work meeting with dr. slater he told her that all the other graduate students had sex at his house. that he had video cameras and asked when she would join him to have sex there. she transferred out of dr. slater's lab, losing years of work. this is a significant reason why women hold less than 1/3 of the faculty positions in science and engineering. dr. slater has said he is now reformed and that may be the case, but his actions, however lurid, are symptoms of a larger problem. how to effectively deal with sexual harassment in academia. i agree with the president of the american astronomical society who said, quote, in my view this is what it would take to move the needle. severe and visible consequences for violating policies of

harassment, and they do have to be visible, unquote. that is why i plan to introduce legislation to require universities to inform other universities of the final results of a disciplinary proceeding. when students, faculty, or staff whose conduct violated title 9 transfer to another institution, the university they are moving to should be aware of their past conduct. i encourage anyone who has experienced sexual harassment in science, whether it's related to this incident or another, to call my office. students enter astronomy to study the stars not the professor's sex life. it's time to stop pretending sexual harassment in science happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from north carolina, mr. holding, for five minutes. mr. speaker, on new

year's day we mourn the loss of a great lady, barbara stockton perry. today i rise to celebrate barbara's 89 years of life that she devoted to her christian faith, her family, and community. barbara's born on november 3, 1926, in the town of franklin. a small north carolina mountain community tucked away under the great smoky mountains. though the population was very small, barbara had a large personality and a keen mind. she was a valedictorian of franklin high school in 1943 and graduated cum laude in 1947. she then went on to the university of north carolina in chapel hill law school and the only woman in the class of 1950, and she was a member of the law review as well. this was classic barbara. distinguishing herself as a highly intelligent woman who was not afraid to break glass

ceilings. barbara's first position out of law school was legal assistant counsel to the belk stores corporation in charlotte. then after marrying warren perry in june of 1951, she moved to kinston, north carolina, with him and became a partner at perry, perry, and perry. law firm. . communities service was important to barbara and so throughout her life she donated her time and efforts to a long list of organizations, including the united way, the north carolina symphony, the arts council, the bicentennial commission and the pride of kinston organization. a lifelong education advocate, barbara also served on the perr of trustees of academy, the u.n.c. chapel hill

where she was elected to two terms of the board of governors of the entire 16 university u.n.c. system. in recognition for contributions to north carolina, she was honored by two north carolina governors. jim holsizer and pat mccorey. both these governors ordered her order of the long leaf pine. if ever anyone instilled and fostered pride in the state of north carolina, it's certainly barbara stockton perry. ever devoted to faith, she served on the board of angel ministries. she was a long-term member of the gordon street christian church and more recently joined the faith fellowship church. and while her contributions to her community are beyond measure, barbara's true joy was her family. she lost the love of her life, warren, in 2003, but theirs was a life filled with adventure, and by all accounts they traveled the world together and shared a dance on all seven

continents. at home, this extraordinary lady was known to her family simply as mama perry. and she was happiest when she was surrounded by her children, grandchildren and extended family. mr. speaker, it's impossible to condense the life of this truly remarkable woman into a few short minutes, but i'll close in saying i was honored and privileged to know her and i give thanks to barbara perry for devoting her life to her family, her community and her faith. she will be missed beyond measure, and may god always bless her. thank you, mr. speaker. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from new york, mrs. maloney, for five minutes. mrs. maloney: mr. speaker, last friday, the bureau of labor statistics released the monthly jobs report for december. it was another in a long

uninterrupted stream of good reports. the reports showed that the economy gained 292,000 private sector jobs last month, and that the unemployment rate fell to 5%. during 2015, the economy added nearly 2.7 million jobs. nevertheless, many of my colleagues across the aisle continue to talk as if the recovery under president obama has been lackluster. they seem to forget the economic meltdown that concurred under the leadership of the prior administration. but the millions of americans who lost their homes, their jobs, they haven't forgotten. let's look at how far we have come in the period after president bush left office. the truth is the record is pretty impressive. first, a reminder of where we started. back in january of 2009 when president bush left office and

president obama was sworn in, he economy shed nearly 820,000 private sector jobs in january, in one month alone. as former fed chairman ben bernanke described it, we were facing the worst financial crisis in global history, including the great depression. between the end of 2007 and the second quarter of 2009, real g.d.p. fell by 4.2%. around $17 trillion in household wealth evaporated during the great recession. to put that number in some perspective, $17 trillion is about equal to our entire gross domestic product. the sum total of all the goods nd services produced by all of the united states for all of 2014. that's a great deal of money to lose. in fact, it would be almost

enough to pay off our entire national debt. in july of 2009, there were about seven unemployed workers for every single job opening in the country. meaning that no matter how hard most unemployed people tried to get a job, six out of every seven of them were just going to be out of luck. you may recall that back then our colleagues across the aisle were adamantly opposed to extending jobless benefits. by october of 2009, the unemployment rate had reached 10%. housing prices were falling, lending was frozen, the stock market had cratered, businesses were failing and people all over the country were losing their jobs, their homes, their savings and their hopes. it was a pretty terrible time for millions of americans, but now much has changed. 2014 and 2015 were the

strongest two years of job creation since 1998 to 2000 when bill clinton was president. the private sector is powering the economy forward. our businesses have added 14 million jobs over a record 70 consecutive months of job growth. wages have finally begun to rise. nominal average hourly earnings for all private employees have now risen 2.5% over the past year. the ratio of unemployment seekers to job openings have fallen to 7:1 to 1.5:1. that's about the lowest this ratio has been since early 2007. since the start of the obama administration, our real g.d.p. has increased by 14%. the u.s. auto industry, which was on death's door when president obama took office, is

now thriving and enjoyed record sales in 2015. our auto industry is now exporting and creating even more jobs. oil and gas prices are low. mortgage rates remain low. inflation is simply not a factor. the dollar is strong and housing prices are back up to where they were in 2007. and all of this recovery was not an accident, not a stroke of good luck. things certainly would have been quite different if we'd only listened to the counsel of our colleagues across the aisle. they vehemently opposed efforts taken by the obama administration to stimulate the economy, and they opposed actions by the federal reserve that turned out to be very critically important. and what would have happened without these actions by the federal reserve and the democrats in congress? the recession would have lasted twice as long, according to a recent study by highly

respected economists allen blinder and mark zandi. the study found without these actions the unemployment rate would have reached nearly 16% and we would have lost twice as many jobs, more than 17 million. it's a bit scary to even think about. so the facts show we had a very strong recovery. are we done? absolutely not. there is much more work to do to ensure the recovery reaches everyone. big challenges remain. many families are struggling to make ends meet, to make the mortgage payment, to save for their children's education. we need faster wage growth, accessible childcare and higher education. that is affordable to all families. and it's time to pass comprehensive immigration reform and to protect americans from gun violence. i'm excited about the opportunity to make real progress on these issues this

year. and i look forward to working in a bipartisan way to continue to focus on the challenges facing middle-class families. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. ratcliffe, for five minutes. mr. ratcliffe: thank you, mr. speaker. the declaration of independence contains a passage that every student in america learns at an early age. it explains that each of us are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, chief among them the right to life. this highlights and reminds us just how much our founders valid the right to life, and as an elected representative, the words in our declaration that follow are equally compelling. to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men. how often we forget that

government exists first and foremost to secure the right to life. now, this is an immense responsibility, one that i take very seriously because one of the highest honors i have in representing congressional district number four in texas is defending the most vulnerable among us, our unborn children, and i'm proud to have a voting record that reflects my unwavering commitment to protecting unborn life and ending taxpayer funding of abortion. but i'll also be the first to tell you that legislators represent only one piece of the puzzle in the ongoing and vital effort to promote a culture of life. there are literally thousands of unsung pro-life heroes in the fourth congressional district of texas whose effort to promote a culture of life are not about gaining recognition or note right but are simply rooted in an abiding sense of protecting the

inalienable right to life, which our founding fathers spoke of. and i'd like to take this opportunity to recognize a few of these pro-life heroes in my district. people like melanie gramar and deborah with the texas federation of republican women. ian in rockwall, texas. and one in had sherman, texas. mason at lake point church adoption ministry. christy wright it at the first choice pregnancy resource center in texarkana. teresa sadler and tim at the rafa center in greenville. jo ann at the rockwall pregnancy resource center. and the great folks at both the paris and fanin pregnancy care centers. the dedication of individuals like these and thousands of others across the fourth district of texas is appreciated, it's necessary and it certainly does not go

unnoticed. thank you, all, for your commitment to protecting the incredibly important cause of life. thank you, mr. speaker. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from guam, ms. bordallo, for five minutes. mr. speaker, today i introduced legislation that will help address the impact of the compacts of free association. these are the pacific islands, on affected jurisdictions like guam and the state of hawaii. i continue to support the intent of the compacts, and i do understand the benefits that these agreements have for our nation and our security. however, the costs borne by our local governments amounts to millions of dollars for providing social services to compact migrants are

unsustainable and congress must act to provide relief for affected jurisdictions who have spent millions of local funds to support the compacts and the migranting. migrants make positive contributions to our community, but insufficient support from the federal government causes a significant socioeconomic strain on our island communities. and this strain only increases, especially with uncertain economic conditions in the freely associated states as well as the impact climate change is having on pacific island nations. the bill i'm introducing as well as proposals that i have made in the past will provide relief and empower local jurisdictions with solutions to reduce the burden of the compacts. the best solution to compact impact would be an increase in annual mandatory funding from the current $30 million to $185

million recommended by g.a.o. however, the current budget environment makes appropriating this very difficult. nonetheless, i am proud to also co-sponsor another bill, a bill introduced by congressman takai of the state of hawaii, that would increase this annual appropriation. and i hope that we can at least have a debate on this measure. however, as we work to find long-term solutions to compact impact, i believe there are important and innovative fixes that would provide much-needed relief to our local governments without much cost to taxpayers. now, this approach is a more budget-friendly way to address this challenge. the bill has four provisions. first, my bill would prohibit the affected jurisdictions to use the amount they have spent to provide social services to kofa migrants toward the

nonfederal provision of giving medicaid to their local residents. the bill proposes a new formula that would increase the percentage to each of the affected jurisdictions. and this would go a long way toward alleviating the burden on affected jurisdictions by increasing the percentage assistance provided by federal federal government for medicaid. secondly, the bill would categorize elementary and secondary education-aged kofa students as federally connected students and make them eligible for impact aid. i understand that the fiscal challenges that the impact aid community faces, and i am committed to working with them to address the effect this bill may have on them. . it increases funding authorization and ensures we are not taking from one group just to pay another. thirdly, this legislation would clarify congress' intent when we

extended eligibility for housing assistance programs to the cofa migrants. this bill ensures that the u.s. citizens, nationals, or lawful permanent residents are not displaced, and are given priority when applying for housing benefits. and lastly, mr. speaker, this bill would commission independent research on the viability of the current compacts and make recommendations on policy alternatives moving forward. i do hope that this research will provide strategic guidance as we move toward renewal of the compacts in 2023. and ensure that we are administering these agreements in the best way. and i'm so very pleased to count my colleague, mr. takai, from the state of hawaii, as an original co-sponsor of my bill. and as this congress discusses solutions for the crisis in puerto rico, it is important that we also discuss challenges that the other territories face, especially the challenge of

supporting the compacts of free association. while the challenges facing affected jurisdictions are nowhere near as serious as puerto rico, doing nothing, mr. speaker, would only welcome economic and security challenges down the road. so i do look forward to this bill becoming law and being a tremendous help to jurisdictions affected by the compact impact. mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from the republic of texas, mr. olson, for five minutes. mr. speaker, in the summer of 1972 by dad was transferred from northwest alabama to southeast texas. i remember the first time i got

off the gulf freeway. heading east down road one and aw the johnson space center. and the resort hotel with an nbc studio on top. right then it hit me. y neighbors were astronauts. moon walkers. my life was changed forever. next nine years were rather dull. three missions of skylab, one handshake with the russians on apollo-soyuz. the assignment came back in 1981, the space shuttle columbia flew for the first time of the the space shuttle was the heart

and soul of human space flight until july 21, 2011 when three words ended the program. houston, we have stopped. those words were heard in the dark. 4:57 a.m. texas time. in my home was dark for 4 1/2 years. hat darkness will end on january 23 when space houston opens independence plaza right by the johnson space center. independence plaza will have the space shuttle independence atop .he 747 transport carrier

our space shuttles flew 133 uccessful flights. with crews as large as two or large as seven. with 55,000 pounds of payload. ur shuttles came from 17 nations. israel, canada, france, germany, the netterland, spain, sweden, switzerland, japan, mexico, russia, saudi arabia, slovakia, and america. our shuttle built the international space station which has had a human being onboard since november 2 of 2000. scott kelly has been onboard the

i.s.s. since march 27 of 2015. scott must love the view because he'll come home after one year in orbit. the hubble telescope would have been the biggest piece of space junk ever without the space shuttle. when it was launched in 1990, it was a telescope that needed glasses. its vision was blurry. five shuttle missions followed, fix its vision, gave it decades of new life, and changed history. do ndependence plaza will more than remind us of the achievements of our space shuttle. this exhibit will ensure we

never forget the two crews we ost on space shuttles. ick, michael, judy, ron, allison, greg, and christa touched the face of god when challenger exploded after 73 econds of flight on january 28 of 1986. 8 years later on february 1 of , willie, ost rick michael, kalpata, david, laurel, and elon when columbia returned mortally wounded and broke up

over their home, my home state of texas. independence plaza will ensure that these 14 heroes will always new, young nd a generation of americans will follow their lead and soar into the heavens. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. it the chair recognizes the gentleman from illinois, mr. davis, for five minutes. the chair recognizes gentleman from oregon, mr. blumenauer, for five minutes. mr. blumenauer: thank you, mr. speaker. one recalls the state of the union that president obama inherited upon taking office. overwhelming problems occasioned by the near collapse of the

economy. 700,000 jobs lost before he was even in office half a month. and it would take many months more to arrest the slide. there were fierce battles, arguments about whether we should spend money to help people in industries. his work was complicated by the announcement early on by the republican leader in the senate that his number one goal was not to fix the economy or deal with health care or the environment or national security, it was to prevent president obama from being re-elected to a second term. time has shown that the money that was spent was critical. and most independent experts agree that we should have invested more heavily in things like rebuilding and renewing america. even so, our performance has been better than any of the other developed economies.

but those results were achieved with divisions and arguments that continue to be played out today on the national political stage as there are people seeking the presidency later this year. my hope is that as the president addresses this chamber tonight, that there might be an opportunity to move past some of the divisions and controversy. my hope is as the president looks up in the gallery and sees the first lady, he might pause and acknowledge her important work in health and nutrition. that he might spend just three minutes on a topic that can bring people together. that he would admit that we as a government still pay too much to the wrong people to grow the wrong crops in the wrong places. that we would be far better off

if we weren't subsidizing people to grow food that actually makes americans sick. i would hope that he would propose that the federal government help more farmers and ranchers with research and market access at home and abroad. let's pay those farmers and ranchers to protect water quality and water quantity. that we subsidize more healthy food in our schools and for senior citizens and low-income people. i would hope that he would acknowledge the revolution that is taking place in food and agricultural thought and policy in this country as documented in the recent pbs special, "in defense of food" with michael pollin. there is an exciting national movement promoting value added

agriculture, healthy food, animal welfare, environmental protection that will strengthen rural and small town america. and provide more satisfaction for the men and women who work in agriculture. it would only take three minutes, but it would be an important milestone for this revolution of food and farm policy that cannot happen soon enough. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from virginia, mr. griffith, for five minutes. mr. griffith: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to recognize coach frank beamer on the occasion of his retirement as the head football coach at virginia polytech institute and state university, more commonly known as fondly known as virginia tech. virginia tech is located in blacksburg, virginia, and as coach beamer concludes his highly successful career, for almost three decades coach beamer has been a tremendous

leader in virginia and a mentor to hundreds of student athletes. in 29 seasons under coach beamer's leadership, virginia tech football has enjoyed unprecedented success. notching 237 wins, three big east championships, four atlantic coast conference championships, and the opportunity to play nor a national championship -- for a national championship. his beamer ball stipe of play has led virginia tech to be -- become one of the nation's most respected college football programs. in 1999 coach beamer was named the consensus associated press college football coach of the year. coach beamer's first postseason berth as head coach at virginia tech was a trip to the 1993 independence bowl game which resulted in a victory for the hokies. it was only fitting that coach beamer ended his coaching career with a 55-52 victory over the university of tulsa in the 2015

independence bowl. pping off a school record 23 straight postseason bowl games. raised a short drive from blacksburg in hillsville, virginia, coach beamer graduated from hillsville high school where he earned 11 varsity letters. as a three-sport athlete in football, basketball, and baseball. he went on to attend virginia tech as an undergraduate and started three years as a corner back playing on the hokey's 1966 and 1968 liberty bowl teams. while attending radford university to receive his master's degree in guidance, he began coaching -- he began his coaching career in 1969. as an assistant at southwest virginia's radford high school frfment there he went on to work as graduate assistant at maryland for one year, followed by the citadel for five seasons, where he was defensive coordinator for two of those.

in 1979, coach beamer joined murray state university as defensive coordinator and was named head coach in 1981. in 1987, coach beamer made his way back to his native southwest virginia to take the raines -- reins at virginia tech. he has brought honor to southwest virginia and he has brought honor to virginia tech by always being the consummate virginia gentleman and a darn good football coach to boot. he has devoted his time and his passion to the teams he has coached as well as greater southwest virginia community. in fact, in 2004 he was present presented with the humanitarian award by the national conference of community and justice for his contributions to fostering justice, equity, and community in the roanoke valley. as evidenced by his incredible success, coach beamer has much to be proud of and can look back on an honest and accomplished career, his passion for coaching led him to achieve what many

coaches only dream of. . he's positively shaped the futures and touched the lives of the virginia boys and girls that he's dealt with, particularly the boys on his football team. and he has made us a better state. this is truly the great measure of a great coach. mr. speaker, i'm honored to help commemorate the career of a remarkable man, and after 29 years of dedicated leadership to virginia tech and the greater community, i would like to thank coach beamer for his service. i wish him and his family all of the best in his retirement. thank you. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from illinois, mr. davis, for five minutes. mr. davis: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise to pay tribute to mr. otis clay, an outstanding international artist who lived, worked and s intimately involved in the

area of chicago which i am proud to represent. tis clay was born in wax hall, mississippi, and ultimately made his way to the west side of chicago where he made his home. otis began his musical career as a gospel singer. and like many other artists switched over to the rest up and blues and recorded his first hit in 1967, "that's how it is when you're in love," which reached number 34 on the national charts. otis performed and recorded in europe, japan and switzerland, and although otis clay reached national acclaim, he continued the north lawndale

community. was a local at churches, festivals and community events. he established his own recording studio, owned a local cleaners and was known as a regular in the community. i was fortunate to have otis clay attend and perform at many events over the years, which i sponsored, and it was indeed an honor to be able to call him my personal friend. otis was involved with the bacco road project and was instrumental with the dorothy tillman in establishing the harold washington cultural center in the third ward on the south side of chicago. my neighborhood and our world community has lost a great artist and entertainer but also

a great human being. i extend condolences to his family, and i know that when the gates swing open, otis clay will come walking in. i thank you, mr. speaker, and yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. fitzpatrick, for five minutes. mr. speaker, i rise to tell the story of sabrina of diamond springs, california. sabrina is one of the tens of thousands of women harmed by esure. in august of 2012 -- essure. in august of 2012, she welcomed her fourth child which talked about sterilization with her physician. her doctor recommended essure

and assured her it was safe. immediately following the procedure, sabrina began to notice a consistent and decline in her health, including losing control of her bowels, extensive weight gain, sbeer bloating, sores covering her body. her lower back, hips and leg joints became extremely painful and she experienced numbless and heel pain that made it difficult to walk. mr. speaker, today i rise again as their voice to tell this chamber that their stories are real, their pain is real and their fight is real. my bill, the e-free act, can halt this tragedy by removing this dangerous device from the market, and i urge my colleagues to join in this fight, because stories like sabrina's are too important to ignore. yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from illinois, mr. dold, for five minutes.

mr. dold: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, this past weekend brought together a group of innovators at the kemp forum on expanding opportunity in south carolina. this important forum highlighted new and creative ideas to address the stubborn problem of poverty in america. the federal government spends more than half a trillion dollars each and every year on poverty measures. that's a significant devotion of resources, and yet while some progress has been made in the last 50 years, today there are still nearly 50 million americans living in poverty. nobody would deny that the esults far -- fall far short than where they need to be. the success on the war on poverty is on the individual level. it's not how many programs exist but how many people can improve their lives by moving

up and out of poverty. mr. speaker, one of the fundamental britains -- principles of this great nation is the freedom of opportunity, the opportunity to find work, to support yourself and to support your family. by working with local community groups like youth build and leaders like bob woodson, i've been able to see numerous success stories like my guest for tonight's state of the lavell brown. this young man has successfully worked with community groups in north chicago to grow as an individual and to get on a path to sustainable career. and he is now giving back to others at youth build lake county. this model of empowering the individual and helping them develop the skills needed to escape poverty is what we need to replicate millions of times over. if we can combine the focus on individuals with a relentless strive to innovate, i am confident that mountain next 50 years our efforts to end poverty and provide greater

opportunities will be a success. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. pursuant to clause 12-a of rule 1, the chair declares the house in recess until noon today. the rules would limit mining activities near streams. the white house has issued a veto threat against the measure, by the way. the house will vote on new

sanctions against north korea as well as countries and individuals who deal with north korea. reaction to nuclear tests in that country. the u.s. senate is in today. they're working on legislation to require a full audit of the federal reserve. you can see that debate on our companion network on c-span2. again, the house back for legislative business this afternoon at noon eastern. as president obama prepared for his state of the union address, he released this video on twitter. pralmt: i'm working on -- president obama i'm working on my state of the union address. it's my last one. as i'm writing i keep looking at the road welf we've traveled in the last seven years. that's what makes america great, our ability to come together as one american family and pull ourselves closer to the america we believe in. it's hard to see sometimes in the day-to-day noise of washington but it is who we are. and it is what i want to focus on in this state of the union

address. >> and c-span's coverage starts tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern with senate historian betty and congressional reporter james arkin looking back at the history and tradition of the president's annual message and what to expect in this year's address. and then at 9:00, our live coverage of the president's speech and then the republican response by governor nikki haley and your phones, tweets and emails on c-span, c-span radio and c-span.org. and we'll reair our state of the union coverage and the republican response starting at 11:00 p.m. eastern/8:00 p.m. pacific. also live on c-span2 after the speech, we'll hear from members of congress in statuary hall with their reaction of the president's address. >> and back live to capitol hill where the house veterans' affairs committee is conducting

a hearing on the veterans affairs implementation of the veterans benefits management system and efforts to reduce the backlog and claims a number of v.a. employees are expected to testify this morning. >> we have not found a correlation between the decision and the appeal. people are entitled to appeal anything they choose. there are some folks who will appeal things that they're not entitled to. but they're entitled to that due process. we go through every appeal very seriously and look for anything. mr. miller: so they're disagrees with your 4%? >> no. they're disagreeing with the decision they got. mr. miller: but you're still saying it's 96%, correct? >> absolutely. mr. miller: ok. mr. bilirakis. mr. bilirakis: thank you, mr. chair. and i thank the panel for their testimony. ms. mccoy, when claims are processed in the absence of

supporting evidence, what could potentially happen to a veteran's disability claim? ms. mccoy: we do an exhaustive development process to get all of the evidence that's relevant to a claim. we do that upfront and we work with the veteran, their representative and other service providers, other federal records. we do an exhaustive search to -- mr. bilirakis: what could happen to veteran's claims if evidence is not submitted? ms. mccoy: if evidence is not submitted, we don't have to consider and we make a decision and weigh the evidence that we have. if subsequently we find that we miss something, a veteran submits something late, a doctor finds something in a drawer that's medical evidence we consider, we will revisit that claim. mr. bilirakis: how long would that take and how long would a veteran to wait for their claims because the evidence is not submitted due to the fault of the v.a.? ms. mccoy: there might be many reasons for the reason that we

don't have that evidence, and that would be a case-by-case basis. mr. bilirakis: thank you. next question for mr. arante. based on your office's investigation, do you agree with the v.b.a.'s insistent that the st. petersburg r.o.'s backlog was due to poor preparation of handling the documents? >> sorry. could you repeat that? mr. bilirakis: based on your office's investigation, do you agree with b.st v.b.a.'s insistent -- i'm from florida -- that the st. petersburg r.o.'s mail backlog was not due to mishandling of documents? mr. arronte: rethink it was due to poor management and it did affect the timeliness of claims processing. i any it added -- you can't say just that alone, but from july or june, 2014, to the end of december, their average time to

process claims jumped about 29 points. so to say 18,000 documents did not affect claims processing timeliness, i don't think anybody could say that. mr. bilirakis: are there any plans for the v.b.a. to ensure that the claims in this r.o. backlog were not negatively affected resulting in denials or claims receiving lower ratings due to missing and unprocessed evidence of a claimant? ms. mccoy: congressman, we process all of our claims and in the electronic system and we now have that centralized mail system, which was what we went into in july of 2015 in -- mr. bilirakis: thank you. mr. arronte, please, could you respond to that question? again, are there any plans for the v.b.a. to ensure the claims this r.o. backlog were not negatively affected resulting in denials or claims receiving

lower ratings due to missing and unprocessed evidence of a claimant? do you have any information with regard to that? mr. arronte: i have no information. mr. bilirakis: this affects my constituents. mr. arronte: are they going to go back and make it right, that's a question for v.b.a. but i have no knowledge that they are or they're not. mr. bilirakis: ms. mccoy. ms. mccoy: congressman, we make sure to the extent possible we have all the evidence when we make a decision. the amount of mail that was in the mail portal at that time in july of 2014 was -- this was a new process for us. we were learning from it and st. petersburg was one of our earliest adoptors. there were pieces of mail in the regional office that were what we call dropped mail. they were not active mail, but they needed to be put with the folder. an example would be a copy of a letter we sent out. so it's not piece of evidence, but it needs to be with a folder.

so we had a cleanup effort in st. petersburg and other places where we had to get that dropped mail associated. mr. bilirakis: how many of our heroes negatively affected by this? ms. mccoy: i would say there was some time delay in the processing, but there was not a delay in making sure that the right decision was made for the veteran. mr. bilirakis: thank you. mr. arronte: in the caci scanning facility, would you say the v.a. staff followed v.b.a.'s shipping standard operating procedure on veterans' intake regulations? mr. arronte: sir. i don't think that was followed. i don't know how -- i guess if i found 100 pieces of mail i could say maybe that was a mistake or somebody didn't manage that properly. but 18,000 pieces of mail, i don't know if there was any procedures being followed. i just don't know how that amount of mail accumulates. mr. bilirakis: thank you. i yield back, mr. chairman. mr. miller: ms. mccoy, one

quick question before i recognize ms. brownley. out of the mail that was shown on that photograph, has everything been scanned and processed? ms. mccoy: everything has been scanned. mr. miller: and what happened with that, once it gets scanned, what happens with that material? ms. mccoy: so the drop mail that was scanned, it was associated with a folder. if there was no action -- mr. miller: no, the boxes that we saw, you scanned it. where are those boxes? ms. mccoy: i don't believe all of those boxes we saw on the page was st. petersburg, that is not my understanding. once they're scanned, they go into the vbns electronic claims folder. currently in -- mr. miller: what were the boxes that we showed the picture of? ms. mccoy: it was my understanding there was a storeroom at that facility where they had training materials and other materials that were already scanned and ready to be sent. mr. miller: i think there were shipping labels on those as if they were shipped to be

scanned. i guess my question is, that information, where is it now? ms. mccoy: the information that needed to be associated with a veteran's folder has been scanned and put in the folder. mr. miller: all those boxes, where are those boxes today? ms. mccoy: you're asking about the physical boxes. mr. miller: and the material in the boxes? ms. mccoy: they would have been scanned and sent to a long-term -- mr. miller: you have the boxes with the information somewhere? ms. mccoy: they exist somewhere, yes. mr. miller: could you find them for us? i'm going to make an official request because you're making out as if this is junk mail. ms. mccoy: no, sir. mr. miller: so it's not junk mail. so this committee would like to see what was in those boxes. i know it's going to be difficult. i know the secretary's going to raise cane and i'd rather not do it with a subpoena. i'd rather do it because this committee's asking in a good

faith effort. you got to hold some people accountable. i have yet to hear you say because these people did not meet their contractual requirements that they're going to be held accountable. ms. mccoy: we have had additional oversight at that facility. we have worked with that contractor to make sure that they understand what our expectations are. mr. miller: how are they held accountable for not meeting the terms of that contract? ms. mccoy: i don't have that. i will take it for the record. mr. miller: when can we expect an answer? ms. mccoy: i will work with the individuals in v.b.a. that manage that contract and i'll get any -- as soon as possible. mr. miller: i don't want to hear any of that was shredded. ms. mccoy: that was not shredded, sir. mr. miller: ms. brownley. ms. brownley: thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for having this hearing. certainly in my opinion we have to continue to have these hearings until we get it

absolutely right for our veterans. i will say, though, that i, back in november, i visited the los angeles regional office and met with v.b.a. employees there , saw the process and met with b.a. employees without their managers there, to meet with them privately, to get their feedback on how the transition was going. i will say they acknowledged that the process was rather rocky, but they feel as though the processing now in a paperless fashion is much more efficient and more accurate and they describe it as, you know, a night and day difference. so i do think that it's important that we acknowledge the progress that we have made. i do think that there is still

more that needs to be done to make sure that we are processing these claims on a timely basis, you know, across the country and that we have a -- get a better handle on the appeals process as well. so it's a fail-safe service that we can provide to our veterans, and obviously these benefits are very important to them and they have earned and deserved them. so in following up on ms. brown's questioning just to ask a few more specific questions. i know on the implementation timelines, this question is to ms. mccoy, one of the g.a.o.'s chief concerns was about the -- is about the timeline for reaching 100% implementation. has the v.a. addressed that concern? ms. mccoy: i will start that answer and i would turn to one

to supplement my answer. from the original intended goal of vbns, the goal was to create an electronic repository, an electronic file room, if you will, and we have accomplished that. we rolled it out at the end of 2012 to the first five stations and in 2013 the regional offices. we didn't stop there. we went on to add in automation because that made sense and that was the right thing to do for veterans and for our employees. and if you could add to that. >> thank you. i appreciate the opportunity to able to talk about why is vbms different. t is because we refer to agile methodology and we can release software every three months and

bring high value functionality to the field as quickly as possible to serve our veterans. that is a little different than maybe you've seen before. and so as a result once we're able to deliver that electronic folder a lot of folks were able to look around and say, wow, you could do so much more. so we turned our attention to what what is the so much more we can do? so let me give you an example of that. one of those is being able to receive the electron ib service treatment records from d.o.d. another one is the evaluation builders. the evaluation builders, they take over several hundred pages of documents that look at the nearly 800 diagnostic codes that are part of the rating schedule and they assist with that standardization and consistency across v.b.a. to make sure that our veterans are served. ms. brownley: so what about those -- and i appreciate your

responses and those are important elements. but in terms of the timeline in reaching 100% implementation, when do you expect that to happen? ms. bontempo: we reached 100% of our original goal and our original goal was the electronic folder. ms. brownley: so of your new goals? how are you monitoring your new goals now? ms. bontempo: correct. as we submitted in our prehearing questions, we do understand that there needs to be an end time and so we are looking at what a new investment would be and what that new innovation would be as part of the f.y. 2018 budget process. ms. brownley: so you're working on a time frame for new goals, new goals being important to full implementation and better operational procedures. you're working on that timeline and will have it by 2018? ms. bontempo: 201 is when we

intend to start a new investment. ms. brownley: thank you. mr. miller: members, for the record, there are two instances and staff has just clarified with me. one is the installation in georgia that we showed the picture of that -- what we considered unsecure information on veterans. that was the stacks of boxes. not the 45,000 claims, i believe, that were for st. petersburg, am i correct in that, ms. mccoy? ms. mccoy: sorry, that is my understanding. mr. miller: thank you. still want those boxes, want to see them. we don't want to bring them there. we will go wherever they are. mr. costello. mr. costello: thank you, mr. chairman. have a question for mr. arronte. in fiscal year 2015, your office substantiated at least six allegations of data

manipulation in v.b.a. regional offices. two in houston, one in los angeles, one in philadelphia, one in honolulu, one in little rock. given these findings, how can we trust v.a. statistics indicating that the department has substantially reduced the claims backlog? can you share with us what methodology you went through so we can feel confident the claims backlog has been reduced by the amount that is indicated? mr. arronte: thank you. i think the methodology that we used was -- let me back up. first of all, in the two houston situations, v.b.a. actually reached out to us. they were aware of the data manipulation before we were, and we went out and then we obtained the data that was manipulated and we took a statistical sample and we tested that -- those samples and that was the case in all

regional offices. and we determined the data manipulation did occur. and at three of the facilities, the employees resigned. nd our concern is when you manipulate data and that data is a -- for instance, like v.o.r., as long as that corrupted data stays in the system, you don't go back and fix that and fix the data claims or correct whatever manipulation happened that data is corrupt. and it's going to remain corrupt until those claims are out of the system. so do we believe that this had an affect on the backlog to degree, it did. we're not -- we don't believe ll the numbers are reliable. mr. costello: ok. you don't believe all the numbers are reliable in terms of how much the claims backlog has been reduced? mr. arronte: yes. and not just from the data

manipulation. if you manipulate the dateate and you don't clear the system the system stays corrupt. if you manipulate 3,000 claims to show they were either done early or not done at all, then that number reduces from the backlog, that's an incorrect number because the data was manipulated and we also -- we did a report on v.b.a.'s claims processing initiative to a process claims over two years and what we found was they were touting that they -- they reduced all or cleared all these claims when in fact they just shifted. they shifted from the backlog to an end product that they used to track claims and that end progress was not part of the backlog. mr. costello: so -- and i appreciate your cannedor. two -- candor. two questions. two points. one, could it be, then, that the claims backlog is actually higher than is now indicated? number two, moving forward,

will the focus be in ensuring that new claims do not become part of the backlog while simultaneously conceding that those that have already been manipulated, it's very difficult to go back in and deal with data that's been manipulated because those claims, to your point a little while ago, it's impossible to sift through that because the data has already been corrupted? mr. arronte: to the second question, it's probably better asked of v.b.a. and how they will process these types of claims and when they find instances where employees manipulated data, what are they going to do to ensure data is correct. i can tell you what we're going to do this year, we're going to start two reviews very shortly. one of those reviews is to look at the mail process and the scanning process, which is the front end of the vbns. and we're also going to look at

data integrity of v.b.a.'s reporting mechanisms and how they capture information for their metrics and we want to see how they count their numbers. mr. costello: talking about the issue of data integrity and you say you want to look at that. could that mean there could be issues there? mr. arronte: yeah. we believe based on the six incidents we corroborated last fiscal year, fiscal year 2015, there may be a systemic issue across the nation so we're going to test their data reliability. mr. costello: i appreciate your candor. it seems based on your system we are not out of the woods yet by any stretch of the measure. mr. arronte: i would be safe to say we're not out of the woods. mr. costello: and i probably shouldn't use metaphors. i yield back. mr. takano: does any or your colleagues want to respond to some rather serious statements

made by mr. arronte? ms. mccoy: thank you very much for the chance to do that. so a couple points i would make. we have more robust and transparent reporting systems now with vbms than we have ever before. every action that is taken in our systems, there's -- i would call it an electronic fingerprint that is left so we can go back and see who did what. we did not have that in a paper-based world, number one. number two, i do not agree with mr. arronte's statement that all of those regional offices that he mentioned had a data manipulation substantiated. one example i would give is little rock. so very quickly, the -- there was a fast letter that was released. it was fast letter 1310, and it was instructing rooge national offices -- national policy to if you found an old claim, to

use a current date of claim to process it because we did not want to dissuede a claims processor who -- disswayed a claims processor who opened up a file and say oh, my goodness. there is a claim somebody missed from 17 years ago. we wanted to encourage everybody to make sure veterans got everything they were deserving. so we said, we won't count that. bring it forward. we want to make sure we capture that. we will use a current date of claim. it was a very minuscule number of claims that we did that but it was intended to make sure at veterans' missed claims were done. and they changed some of the date of claims using the national policy but they kept a very extensive log to go back and they knew which ones they did. so i struggle because i.g. says they substantiated these dates

were -- claims were changed but yet it was in line with the national policy. so that's a rock in a hard spot. did they not follow the national policy or -- so i disagree there was data manipulation there. they were following the national policy. we can agree or disagree about whether the national policy was correct. it has since been rescinded. we don't do that anymore. but that is not a data manipulation situation. mr. takano: ms. mccoy, an important takeaway i'm getting from your testimony is the new capacity of an electronic system versus the previous paper system which existed in the previous administration throughout the duration of that administration. my understanding is we initiated under this administration the electronic system, and the initial cost stimates were lower.

it's cost us a lot more to implement this system and to develop this system. but you might want to -- can i ask you to comment on the advantages of moving forward with electronic system with all its flaws, are we better off today than we were under the previous seven to eight years as we saw our veterans' claims rising for obvious reasons? ms. mccoy: thank you, sir. we are much better off and veterans are much better off because of the electronic system that we have built. we were behind the 8-ball. we were outdated in our paper-based system. we should have done this years ago. so the cost of kind of catching up and doing that now has been that -- there has been a lot of change that our employees have had to go through. there has been a cost to do that catch-up. mr. takano: you mean to tell me for the entire duration of the prior administration, the seven or eight years when we started

our conflicts, intervening conflicts around the world, there was no attempt to establish an electronic claims system? ms. mccoy: we had little business and pieces of claims that were paperless, but there was not a wholesale effort until the last few years. mr. takano: so the effort to automate and to bring a complete electronic claims system into operation started in 2009? ms. mccoy: foundationally yes. mr. takano: foundationally, ok. and we are far better off than under a paper -- a paper-based system. with all the flaws and all of hiccups and one would say underestimated costs. my time is running out. i hope my colleagues will ask what can we do to help further his along.

sorry. my time is up. i yield back. mr. miller: yeah, no. you're welcome to answer the question. ms. mccoy: thank you. i would quickly say there are a number of things we can do now with an electronic system that we never could before. we electronically receive service treatment records from d.o.d. we don't have to go hunting and waiting for those. we can move, work fluidly around our entire country, around the entire system and get the full capacity out of our employees. we could not do that before except very inartfully with boxing up paper records and shipping them around. we are able to use automation to speed up and standardize the decisions that we make. we are -- we bring over disability benefit questionnaire information electronically from v.h.a. that prepopulates the system. there are key strokes that are saved. our employees don't have to type every single key stroke. mr. miller: i gave you some

extra time. the question is what can we do to help? ms. mccoy: thank you. i was so excited to tell you what we were getting from the system. i would say that the support we have received already has been phenomenal and that we would ask for your continued support and the interaction we have had with this committee and your staffs for ideas and ways that we can improve the system. mr. miller: so following with mr. takano's tact, since i've been chairman of this committee, you've received great support, is that correct? just like under the obama administration, you were talking about how the electronic medical records has gone on in the last few years, correct? mr. takano: well, mr. chairman, i wanted to point out that we had a -- we had a paper-based system. mr. miller: under the previous administration. mr. takano: the electronic

system we're trying to move to with vbms has obviously had its share of problems but my contention is we're probably better off even wall the problems we had and i would say unexpected costs than we were had we not attempted to do this. mr. miller: i concur. mr. takano: i am glad that you're interested in the question about what can congress do to continue the process of getting the system to work as it should. mr. miller: but it can't be pouring more and more and more money with no cost controls. and i think that's what the committee needs to focus on is he fact that while ms. bontempo says we can't tell you how much it's going to cost because we're going to continue to keep it changing. well, it's been 147% increase, a huge increase in cost. and your time has expired. so the one question i would ask ms. mccoy is, why was the fast

etter rescinded? ms. mccoy: there were a number of policy and procedural discussions and we thought it best to rescind it. mr. miller: why? could there be some manipulation taking place because of the way the fast letter was designed? ms. mccoy: i think it was the fact we had a chance to see how it was utilized when we put it out. we learned from that and we made a decision to stop using it. mr. miller: mr. arronte, could you comment? mr. arronte: i agree with ms. mccoy that at little rock they found this information and they corrected the information but the fact is they followed the fast letter. it was the same fast letter that we had problems in philadelphia and data manipulation -- i'm not sure that is the right or wrong term. if you go and change data and

regardless if your policy is good or bad, you changed data and that data is corrupt. that's what the fast letter did. i suspect that the fast letter was rescinded and i was part of the discussion related to the incidents that happened in the philadelphia regional office when they were manipulating data there is it was rescinded because it was bad policy because data was being manipulated. mr. miller: thank you. mr. huelskamp. mr. huelskamp: thank you, mr. chairman. appreciate the topic and the discussion and the reports here. i will remind the committee, i think it was approximately two years ago we sat here and heard glowing reports of other parts of the v.a. right before a lot of data manipulation scandals did break and i hope we're not going there. i want to establish the facts here. as you understand, ms. mccoy, so the backlog data, there's no question you believe it is improved and the backlog is down to how many veterans are awaiting claims? ms. mccoy: the backlog has been

greatly reduced. d currently we are about 88% reduced from what we were and -- mr. huelskamp: how many veterans are still waiting? ms. mccoy: in the backlog this morning it was about 80,000. mr. huelskamp: and they all have an electronic file attached to them? ms. mccoy: 99.8% of our disability claims work is paperless. mr. huelskamp: so you should be able to generate a list of my constituentes that are waiting in the backlog? ms. mccoy: we could do that. mr. huelskamp: if i understand correctly, we don't know what the cost is going to be? all we know is it's been overrun by 720 million dollars. but we still don't know what the final cost will be for implementation, is that correct? ms. mccoy: i would say that -- i'll turn to my colleagues to supplement but i would say from the beginning of where we started with an electronic repository, check, and moving

forward continuing to build out the automation, the functionality, that's something we probably will never finish because we always want to make sure we're doing beater job by our veterans. mr. huelskamp: when you requested the money, you had no idea what it was going to cost? ms. mccoy: well -- mr. huelskamp: you don't know what the final cost is going to be? and you're going to go through the appropriations process this year and saying we want more money but we don't know when this will end and what the final cost will be for a very specific projeblingt, is that correct? -- project, is that correct? ms. bontempo: let me take that in two points. in a traditional i.t. program which we call waterfall which is we gather all those requirements on front, then return them over to i.t., they build a system and years later you have something delivered that may not be meeting your user needs, that's a traditional i.t. project. we did not go down that path. we used something called agile

which allowed us to take and build requirements as we were going along. vbms was not intended to be 100% complete on day one. we deliver every three months that high value functionality. as we are going through the process, the budgeting process that you're referencing, we will be looking at a new investment to look at new innovations as part of the f.y. 2018 process. mr. huelskamp: so what will the -- how much are you going to ask for on top of the $580 million that's now at $1.3 billion and you need how much more? you're just trying to tell us, we'll let you know how much we need? ms. bontempo: so the f.y. 2017 budget is working through the department. and as soon as it is released to congress, we'll be happy to talk to you more. mr. huelskamp: but 2018, is that when this particular project will be completed? you keep talking about 2018.

ms. bontemp ore: 2018 is when we're looking at a new investment and a new investment will allow us to take advantage of what we have done so far and what other things could we bring into that. mr. huelskamp: and how do you hold your contractors accountable, particularly like the folks in the scanning facility in georgia and by the way, were they held -- did they lose any money over that? did you punish them financially for all those records that were tting there and presumably i'm guessing some might have been lost? ms. mccoy: i mentioned earlier i would check on that to make sure we deliver that, anything that was done. there were no records lost. and there was not a wrongdoing. there was a cleanup effort that needed to be done and we have completed that. mr. huelskamp: the contractor was held accountable. this was a year ago. that picture's from a year ago. ms. mccoy: it doesn't look like

that any longer, sir. mr. huelskamp: the contractor, would you say, sorry, let's fix this up? could you describe how you had the contractor accountable? if i were you i would be very embarrassed. this is the first time i've seen this picture. i guess this will be shown throughout the country. you held them accountable how? ms. mccoy: i don't have that information. i will take it -- mr. huelskamp: mr. chairman, again, this picture is a-year-old. you knew about this a year ago. your staff knew about that from the folks right here at this table. we should have heard about it a year ago. it's disappointing you can't say, hey, this has been taken care of and this is why. you assured us this has been taken care of but you can't tell us what you did with the contractor that failed. and that's what i worry about is you say you have a never-ending project with a never-ending price tag that has moving goals and you tell us at the beginnings it's only going

to be $580 million but magically is at $1.3 billion with no end in sight, no time frame in sight, just we'll let you know in 2018, which we'll be under a new administration. so with that, mr. chairman, i yield back. thank you for the topic of the hearing. r. miller: dr. rice. -- dr. ruiz. mr. ruiz: there's a lot of wins and losses and a lot of interrogation from tche, i'm sure. i think we need to take a step back and look at the big picture. this hearing is about backlog. backlog is a description of a metric definition saying that we don't have resolution on a veteran's application for their benefits after 125 days. and we're even going even more specific away from the big picture when we focus on vbms. that's only one of several

tools that we have to help us reduce the backlog. however, after, you know, many conversations with our veterans, after many attempts and advocacy and helping the system and helping our veterans back home and after visiting the l.a. regional office with representative brownlee, we must ask ourselves the simple question -- what does backlog mean for our veterans, especially when we try to become a veteran-centered institution of excellence for them? so what does it mean for our veterans when we throw out these terms "backlog"? one is that the claims that they believe they have earned are not being answered, what does that do to a veteran? that means they're waiting anxiously. there's more stress. stress affects their health. that means that they're not getting the resources or services that they need. window, that they're not

getting the -- two, that they're not getting the benefits that they deserve. now, granted, some claims that they're applying for, they're not going to get because they don't qualify under the current requirements. however, the worst-case scenario is we have a veteran who actually deserves the benefits and they've been waiting so long and they're ityy and from morbid it's a systemic problem that they're not getting that benefit that they should. and even worse, they should get the benefit and they've been denied and they're in the appeals process. what does it mean for the veteran? it means the quality of life is not where it should be and that's why all of this is important. three, the appeals is part of a continuum of that process. so we talk about backlog and we're focusing on backlog and so we're looking at this one

backlog metrics of the claims application. but then once they get an answer, we say we reduce the backlog because we gave them an answer. well, the answer is just a half of what the veteran is really looking for. so then they want to appeal and the actual outcome of this is that they want their benefit. so the appeals process should not be seen as a completely entirely separate set of metrics if we're going to look at the veteran's experience. the appeals process should be seen as a continuum of that. the other thing i need to note is oftentimes we're looking at costs and we would definitely love to reduce cost and make it efficient because cost is a part of efficiency that we want to produce the best outcome for the least amount of resources as possible. but cost is not stagnant. cost is dynamic.

and the reason why we can't predict what the cost is going to be next year, five years or years from now is because veterans' means change. veterans' means are dynamic. our ability to improve our efficiencies are dynamic. those are metrics that are out of our control. so when we have an influx of veterans coming back from the middle east, when we have an increase in our efficiency -- therefore, we're able to reach out more veterans and process their needs quicker -- for example, in 2006, since then we had 191% increase in output, then we are moving the pieces so that we can get the veterans the answer and what they need. so having said that, looking at the big picture, how can we reform the metric system so that we can take the veteran's

experience and look at, are the veterans getting resolutions to their answers and, two, are they getting the benefits that they earn and they deserve from day one when they fill their to the end cation point, the appeals process as well? mr. miller: you have two seconds. just kidding. please answer the question. ms. mccoy: thank you, sir. i would like to make a couple quick points. to your point, sir, the number of cases that we resolved, i just want to share a couple of metrics and then i'll move on. in f.y. 2006, which is as far back as we can drill down to the issue-by-issue level with our data, complile we completed 7 -- completed 774,000 rating claims in that there were almost 2.2 million different issues. it was an average of 2.8 issues per claim. this last year in f.y. 2015,

while we really hit that big number, it was almost 1.4 million rating claims completed, but in that it was 6.3 million issues. so that, as you mentioned, has been 191% increase in the amount of work we have had to do to deliver those benefits. an average of 4.6 issues per claim. so a claim is not a claim. we're doing more work per claim than we were in the past. as far as the appeals and the metrics, i agree with you that from the veteran's experience, those who appeal it see it as a continuum. we're -- i struggle with how to make it one long continuum because only 10% to 11% of veterans who receive a decision actually file an appeal. and only about 4% to 5% go all the way through to file a formal appeal. so it's the majority of those who get decisions do not

appeal. so within the appeal process, we have more work. we have much more work than we can tackle. it is a broken appeals system and we have talked to stakeholders, our veteran service officer, partners, congress. we're looking for solutions and we welcome any ideas and solutions. we have put forth. we need significant legislative reform for the appeals issue, including closing the record. the only other alternative that i can see is more people. and that is not an efficient answer. mr. ruiz: how about using resolution as a metric? resolution from day one to the final final answer for our answers and looking at that in the whole continuum? mr. miller: did i hear -- did i hear you just say the v.a. wants legislative approval to close a veteran's appeals

process? ms. mccoy: we have had that as a legislative proposal to close the record, yes, sir. mr. miller: and however -- and ow far did that go legislatively? ms. mccoy: we introduced it several times, is my understanding, and we're still working on that. mr. miller: i don't know if you'll get this committee to allow the v.a. to close a veteran's appeal just because you want to clean your books up. mr. coffman, you're recognized. mr. coffman: thank you, mr. chairman. ms. mccoy, i heard from a lot of my constituents about the backlog problems in the denver v.a. office. particularly on nonrating adjustment claims. v.a.'s own denver office numbers from last week peg the average days pending on , nrating claims at 384 days

over a year and that assumes this data is reliable. something the i.g. is skeptical of based on reviews in the denver office and elsewhere related to reports of data manipulation. one constituent was told the wait time may be two years. simply to add dependents to her award, which means in the meantime her children are not eligible for dependent education and benefits. can you explain why some of these simple nonrating adjustments could take so long? it seems like more of a management issue than an i.t. issue given the simplicity of many of them? ms. mccoy: congressman, the -- i will speak on the nonrating element to the dependency, as you mentioned. so we have many different solutions for dependency, and

it's our agency priority goal for f.y. 2016 and 2017, so we're putting in a more ncentrated effort on dependency claim. the rules-based processing system, rbps, veterans can file online. 60% to 65% of those are automatically processed within a day or two. mr. coffman: where would that two-year wait come from? ms. mccoy: we tried to put them through the rbps system as we added functionality. there are instances where we're still look forg evidence or information -- for evidence or information. mr. coffman: mr. arronte, i wonder if you complement on this issue. mr. arronte: yes, sir. i would suspect that this is a goal for v.b.a. in fiscal year

2016 and 2017 because in the push to reduce the backlog, a lot of resources were moved to rate and process those claims and in my written statement, in my opening statement we have seen, because of this shift in the reallocation of staff to work claims associated with the backlog, they've created backlogs in other areas. mr. coffman: so this is more of a management than i.t.? mr. arronte: i believe so. mr. coffman: ok. ms. mccoy, according to the september, 2015 -- 2015 o.i.g. report, cost for development of vbms increased from nearly $579 million in september, 2009, to almost $1.3 billion in january, 2015. and the i.g. attributed the cost increases to, quote, inadequate cost controls, unplanned changes in system and business requirements and inefficient contracting practices, unquote. those details sound an awful

lot like the construction debacle we had in my district with a building of the hospital and the incredible cost overruns of that. can you give us any specifics in terms of v.a. employees, first of all, who was in charge of the day-to-day oversight of the vbms system, the development of this system? ms. ccoy: so i would ask bontempo. mr. coffman: i want the name of the individual in charge. ms. bontempo: i am the director of the program management office. i work in the v.b.a. chain of command. mr. coffman: are you in charge, that's my question? of the day-to-day -- just tell me whether or not you're in charge of the day-to-day management of the document of this system. ms. bontempo: on the business side. n the -- i'll refer to him for

i.t. >> the scope -- those were the deliberate decisions of the agency in support of the agency's priority goals. mr. schliesman: those were on the needs of supporting the veteran. mr. coffman: ok. i'm not going to get a clear answer. has anyone been disciplined? let me put it this way. has anyone been disciplined what the i.g. has identified in the mismanagement of this system? mr. schliesman: this were deliberate decisions -- mr. coffman: has anybody been disciplined? i guess the answer is no, is that correct? the fact we have these incredible cost overruns, mismanagement has been identified by the i.g. and what you're telling me is nobody has been disciplined, which is really reflective of v.a.'s culture of i think in terms of just the bureaucratic incompetence. et me -- ms. mccoy, as you

know there are not only claims backlog -- ok. mr. chairman, i yield back. >> we will leave this hearing now as the house is about to gavel in for legislative business. members are expected to debate a bill about mountain top coal mine going into effect and sanctions on north korea. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] the chaplain: dear heavenly father, it is with thanksgiving and a mournful heart as we approach this day, as we remember the lives lost and tragically affected by the earthquake in haiti six years ago to this day. today we are grateful, god, for the lives rescued by the actions of our president, as well as the bipartisan endeskers of the members of this congress -- endeavors of the members of this congress and the heroic men and women in the armed services. we pray for our elected representatives in